Shadows and Wind
by Corentin
Summary: A group of short stories about Shikamaru and Temari. All sorts of topics, so you may get some you don't like. Updated every week, hopefully. Rated T because I'm paranoid king.
1. Reason

**Hello, peoples, this is Corentin, coming to you with ShikaTem Shorts! **

**I'm not Internet fluent, so I'm not sure if there's another name for these short stories, built on one idea, but still, I like shorts. **

**I'm not likely to put author's notes at the top, or if i do, they'll be about one scentance.**

**Alright. Here we go!**

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**Reason**

How did he arouse such feelings in her? It wasn't his attitude, all that gave rise to was annoyance, that blasted chauvinistic attitude coupled with his lethargic philosophy. It wasn't his looks, although he **was** good looking, with his tanned skin, muscles in all the right places, and that beautiful, shiny black hair that made you want to undo the hair-tie and run your hands through it. It wasn't how he lived, because he did next to nothing in his life. It wasn't his voice although his voice was beautiful. It wasn't his brain, which was superior to hers. What he did to her gave her other feelings, moaning at his touch, but that wasn't what she was thinking about. It wasn't his conversation, because he talked little. It wasn't those little things he did for her, giving her chocolate when she was sick, flowers at that time of the month (how the heck did he know when?) It wasn't any of that, she decided.

It was all of it, every last thing he did or didn't do, every word or silence, every look and gesture, every glorious thing about him. That was a good enough reason for her to keep him with her always. Oh yeah.

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**If you liked this, check out my chapter story, _Man and Wife_ /s/5843364/1/bMan_b_And_bWife_b **

**Also, I'm going to put up a set of shorts like this in the NejiTen category, called Silver Eyes and Steel Blades. No URL yet.**

**Peace.**


	2. Moon

**Moon**

He opened his eyes, yawning. The light of the sun had faded, the night was cold around him, but he was warm un the blanket. Her arms were around him, her hair in a golden splash on the hillside. One of her hands was in his hair, which had fallen out in sleep. Although he tried not to rouse her, she shifted, and smiled up at him. He answered her smile with a kiss, and they looked up into the sky once again.

_Right now, I am the luckiest man alive_, thought Shikamaru, as Temari trailed kisses down his neck, whispering in her ear.

"Look, darling. We watched the clouds so long that we're now watching the moon."

* * *

**Sorry it was so short. But I liked this the way it was, so I put it up.**


	3. Saving Me

**Saving Me**

His life had been a mess. Shikaku had tried, Yoshino had tried, Choji had tried, ino had tried, Tsunade had tried. He'd listened to none of them. Retreating alone to a hole in the wall, he'd smoked his days away, not just with cigarettes, but drugs too. He'd known that Asuma wouldn't have wanted it, he knew that Kurenai didn't want it. But he was what he was. And then she came.

He propsed to her a year ago, and she'd disappeared from his life, after refusing. But one day, she'd appeared and destroyed his drugs, his cigarettes, and given him what he'd really needed, a shoulder to cry on, someone who didn't care whether he ruined their clothes with his tears. She'd promised nothing. He'd asked for nothing. It was enough that she had saved him.

Then, one day, she'd overcome the fear inside her and finally said it.

"Lazy?"

"Yeah, Temari?"

"I..."

"What?"

"I love you."

"I know."

"Well?"

"I love you too, troublesome woman."


	4. Process

**Process**

Love is a process.

When Temari first saw Shikamaru, she saw a spoiled Konoha brat, who would fall easily.

When Shikamaru first saw Temrai, he saw a seductive Sand Ninja, but more than that, an incredibly troublesome woman.

When Shikamaru first asked her out, she accepted only because she wanted free food.

When he'd first asked her out, he'd done everything wrong, stuttering, tripping, spilling things, etc.

When she'd asked him out for a second date, she hadn't known what she was doing, squandering her money on a lazy boy of Konoha.

When he went with her on their second date, he'd felt better, and even comfortable, but then she'd kissed him, and everything had gone weird.

When she first kissed him, their lips were dry, and wasn't what she'd expected, and yet, everything she wanted.

When she first kissed him, he'd almost had a heart attack.

When they'd realized that they were going out, they began to tell people that no, they weren't.

When they first slept together, both of them realized just how much they loved each other.

When Shikamaru had asked Temari to marry him, she'd said yes, and kissed him.

When they walked up the aisle as two, and then down as one, they'd felt truly whole for the first time.

When Temari gave birth for the first time, she almost died of fear.

When Shikamaru held his daughter for the first time, a warmth began to spread through him.

When Temari had died, years later, leaving behind 7 children, many married themselves, Shikamaru had felt empty again.

When Shikamaru had died, three weeks after Temari, they'd met in heaven, and shared one of many kisses to come.

Love is a process.


	5. Overrated

**Sorry for a long time without an update. This one is special for the 4th of July**, **the next one is just a normal one. Thanks!**

**

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**

**Overrated**

They were sitting on the porch. Not that they liked the porch, it was just two hot to sit inside. Blast all air-conditioning repair men. Shikamaru's eyes were closed, and he was leaning back against the wall, while Temari sat on his lap, her head resting on his chest. Temari sighed, casting about in her brain for something to do.

"Maybe we should go to the fireworks, Shika." Shikamaru shook his head.

"Fireworks are overrated." Temari looked up at him, and raised her eyebrows.

"Overrated? Don't you remember what happened under the fireworks last time?" Shikamaru closed his eyes and let his mind travel back.

_He was crying. Asuma was dead, dead, dead, and that laughing freak who had killed him was unbeatable, untouchable, immortal. He was helpless. He was wandering. It was late, but he didn't care. There was a crash, and he jumped, watching as fireworks flew into the sky. It didn't seem right, all this celebration, when his teacher was dead. And then, he heard her voice._

_ "What's the matter, lazy?" Not now, he thought, I can't deal with you now. But he made an effort, lifted his head and attempted to smirk at her. But the effect was ruined by the tears streaming down his face, as he crashed to the ground. Temari was next to him in an instant, cradling his head in her hands. Soon, it all poured out of him, and they were crying together. In the raw emptiness of the moment, as she rose to get him a handkerchief, he clutched at her , and cried out._

_ "Don't leave me Temari, I need you, I love you, stay with me." And she sat back down, and, crying together, they had kissed._

Shikamaru opened his eyes again, and looked at her.

"Yeah, that was good. But look what it got me!"

"What?"

"A troublesome woman, no, **the **troublesome woman for my wife!"

"Why, you..." Shikamaru ran hard, pursued by a hail of object blown behind him by Temari's Wind Jutsu. Hey, nothing's perfect. But this is.


	6. Unconventional

**Unconventional**

"I'm just saying it's not normal!"

"Ino, I really couldn't care less what you think."

"Well, I do!"

"I had noticed that."

"Honestly, Shikamaru! She makes you do everything for her, and she abuses you, and you still love her?"

"Um...yes? I did say that."

"But why?"

"Do you care?"

"Yes."

"Is it any of your business?"

"No."

"Then should you be asking?"

"HECK YES!"

"OK, wrong question. Do you think that I enjoy your snooping?"

"No."

"Then stop!"

"HECK NO!"

"...You're hopeless."

* * *

"I see Ino got your feathers ruffled."

"How did you know it was her? "

"Nobody else besides her and me annoys you enough for you to let it show."

"True."

"So, what'd she say?"

"Oh, she was just saying that our relationship is unconventional annoys her."

"Unconventional? What the heck?"

"Well, it is."

"Would you want it any other way?"

"...No. Defiantly not."

"Well, there you are. Who cares about Ino?"

"Not me."

"Well, lazy, let's get back to some unconventional kissing."

"I'm not arguing."

* * *

_ Sometimes the unconventional things, the uncommon, are the most worth having._


	7. Oops

**Unless you actually care about what I'm doing skip down to the story.**

** I'm really getting into the old Zelda game:Ocarina of Time. For its time, the graphics are great, I love the system, the story is great, the music is PHENOMINAL, and most of all, I love the way they do cut scenes. They look like they're out of a real movie (aside from the graphics of course). Camera angles, expressions, it's all there. Great game.  
**

* * *

**Oops**

Shikamaru growled, trying to vent his frustration by sound. It wasn't working. Temari hadn't spoken to him for three days now. They'd had a perfect relationship, no unrealistic demands, a lot of kissing, dates, cloud watching, shogi, it was all there. Of course, she still beat up on him, and yelled at him, but that was only part of her charm, right?

But that had all changed. Now she was cold. If she spoke to him at all, it was with withering insults and profanity. Lots of profanity. No dates, no shogi, no cloud watching, and defiantly no kissing. It was what young Shikamaru would have termed as perfect, nothing that he had to do, he could sleep all the time, play shogi with his dad, watch clouds without a loud woman next to him.

It was torture.

"What did I do?", he wondered out loud. He hadn't fallen prey to the normal pitfalls of relationships. He'd been yielding, paid for every meal, always asked her out, never forced her to kiss him (well, seldom, but Temari didn't mind it), never looked at other women sideways, never got into sticky situations with childhood friends, never forgotten...her...birth...d...a...y...

"Oops."

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** This-a ain't a-gonna be a-pretty! Poor Shikamaru. He's in big trouble. By the way, a great oneshot about this is _Purple Paint Is My Saviour_. Incredibly funny. I suggest it. Much better (and longer) than this one. Little bit O' swearing, rated T. **

**Read it. Also, read ANY of sunprincess7's work. She/he? is one of the greatest ShikaTem authors on this site. Beware of language in most stories, also innuendo.(I think that's the right word?)**

**Thanks for the reviews.**

**Corentin  
**


	8. Strategy

**Strategy**

There was strategy involved in love, Shikamaru thought, nursing a sore head on the couch, listening to his wife thumping around upstairs, wincing as he heard several fairly valuable, not to mention potentially destructive, objects being throw about the room. There was, for instance, the way you didn't tell the truth when your wife asked you if her dress made her look fat. Particularly if said wife is eight months pregnant and therefore not only, well, fat, but also very hormonal, and touchy about her figure. _That was kind of the wrong move_, he thought.

But strategy appeared in love in other ways as well. There was the way you waited for the right moment to ask a girl out, for instance, not right after she'd broken up with her fiance of five years for an unspecified guy. He winced. Well, he'd made the wrong move there, too.

But strategy was in other places, right? Places where he hadn't messed up. For instance, he'd kissed her at an opportune time...while she was on the Ferris Wheel with him and too scared to anything. Which practically counts a sexual assault. Okay, so maybe he'd messed that up. But he hadn't messed up the proposal, right? Well, she had been half drunk at the time...alright, guilty of failure there too. And as for asking permission of the next of kin, well, he'd made the mistake of asking Gaara about it when he was in a bad mood, out in the dessert, with an ample amount of sand...and he'd asked Kankuro just after he'd mastered multiple puppet Jutsu, while standing in a room full of puppets. Those had been bad choices. Really, really, bad, scar-causing choices.

So if he hadn't fufilled the strategies of love, why had they still married. Why were they still (mostly) happy together?

It was because there is no strategy in love. Oh, there's strategy to romance, but true love works out no matter what you do. In fact, true love is more likely to mess up the most perfect strategies, because we don't take it's all-consuming power to heart. We pass over it. So, while one must use strategy to have a successful romance, love needs no strategy.

For instance, strategy required staying out Temari's way as much as possible. But love demanded going to her, apologizing on his knees, and asking forgivness. As well as a few white lies about Temari's baby-swollen waist. So which was he to choose?

The same one that had caused him to get married to the most annoying, loud, overbearing, know-it-all, touchy, sexy, unreasonable, the most _troublesome_ woman ever. So Shikamaru followed love's strategy, and went upstairs, preparing his mind and mouth for apology, followed quickly by flattery. And the rest of his body for the...unseemly relations which would probably follow. Blast all hormones.


	9. Fortress

**What is up? I just got my new computer, so it's time for a marathon of updating!**

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**Fortress**

Temari gave others the impression that she was secure, safe, and grounded. No inhibitions, no hesitations. That she knew where she was going, what she was talking about, and what she would do. Always.

It was all a facade.

Ninja find an opponent's insecurities and exploit them, and thus, shinobi learn to kill their own hearts and destroy their own emotions and insecurities, or they create a shell of bravado around them, shielding their innermost thoughts from the world. But when you get to know somebody well, you learn to look past the facade. That's why Temari had always scorned friendship, and feared love.

If love meant what she thought it did, it meant that you had to give all of yourself to the one you loved, to show them all of you. And that scared her. It scared her to think that there might someday be someone who she opened herself to, showing all of her weakness, weakness she hid for fear of ridicule.

That was before she met him.

She'd always feared that the person whom she trusted, and showed herself to, would take advantage of this new, weaker Temari. But he didn't.

In fact, her made her feel safe, like a coat in winter, like a wall between you and the wind, and like a fortress in a storm. She didn't know why. Maybe it was in all the little things he did. The way his body tensed when another man came near her. The way he held her hand, whenever they walked on the streets. The way he was always there. The way his hand always seemed to find the small of her back, guiding her and supporting her, so strong she felt that she could simply lay back and let him carry her. The way he stepped in front of her when she was hit on by drunk guys (which happened quite often). The way he smiled at her, so sure of himself. And the way he kissed her, letting her know that nothing would ever harm her, so long as she stayed in his arms.

She'd always felt naked in the storm, before, protected only by coverings of tissue paper, the webs of lies she'd spun about her, until they became a part of her. But now that he was here, she felt surrounded by a stone wall, a mighty fortress against her enemies.

And she would never leave that fortress.


	10. Continue

Moving On is tough stuff. For instance, when you've just been dumped.

Shikamaru sat in a bar, nameless to him and 65% of the other patrons, most of whom were, like Shikamaru, stone drunk. He'd come here to drown his sorrows, intending to just have a few drinks. He'd had more than he could count. He knew he should stop, if he didn't he'd kill himself. But somehow, drinking himself to death didn't seem quite so bad right now.

He'd proposed earlier that day, or was it yesterday? Anyways, they'd been dating for three years, and he'd decided to finally ask her. And then, she'd dumped him. For **Sai**. The emotionless wonder. What the heck? He didn't know they'd even met, much less that she'd been lusting after Sai for the past year. It was really hurting, not where she'd slapped him after he'd begun calling Sai names, but in his chest. Not around his heart, strangely. It felt like there was a hollow in his chest, like the desires that had been pent up all these years had suddenly gone bad on him, like when you begin to throw up in the middle of a drink. Which he'd now done eight times. Huh. Why couldn't he remember that far back? Shikamaru pounded his glass on the bar, asking for more, but suddenly he realized nobody was there. What the heck. He'd find his own drink.

Several hours later, Shikamaru uncurled from a corner seat, the emblem of a sake brewery imprinted on his cheek. He felt like crap. Quite literally. He went to the bathroom and threw up, then stumbled out onto the streets, heading towards the sun(set? Rise?), in search of a new beginning. He'd find one, without Temari. He would move on. Maybe. If he survived his mother's lecture on drink without hurling all over her new floor. Ugh.


	11. Talks I:Figure

**This begins a series of shorts I'm going to do within this collection. They'll be dialogues between Shikamaru and Temari, at different points in their relationship, and different times in their lives. They will have no discernible order, so don't expect me to go from friends to good friends to boyfriend and girlfriend, etc. Nope. It's gonna be in weird order.**

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**Talks I:Figure**

"Do you know what Ino just said to me?"

"No, but I have a bad feeling."

"She told me, and I quote: 'Now that you're dating Shika, you should try dieting. I mean, Shikamaru isn't likely to sleep with you while you're fat.'"

"She certainly has nerve, telling that to you."

"I almost bit her head off, and I mean that literally! Who does she think she's talking to?"

"Probably Sabaku no Temari."

"I hate it when you make sense."

"..."

"Shikamaru?"

"Hmm?"

"Is it true?"

"Is what true?"

"What Ino said, that you don't want to sleep with a fat girl."

"Well, that part, yes. I wouldn't want to sleep with a fat girl."

"Why, you..."

"But neither would I want to sleep with somebody who's too thin. Like I've told Choji many times, I like women a little more substantial."

"So which am I? Thin or fat."

"You're perfect, Temari. Beautiful, seductive, sexy, perfect Temari. I'd sleep with you if I didn't know you'd break my head in the morning afterwards."

"You got that right."

"Which part?"

"All of them."

"Conceited woman."

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** Apologies to all the obese.  
**


	12. Talks II: In Between The Lines

**Talks II: In Between The Lines**

He was lying on the grass. She was walking up to him. Raising himself on his elbows, he raised his hand in greeting.

"Hey." Droping his hand he dropped back onto the grass, shutting his eyes.

"I'm leaving," she said. _Will you come with me?_

"When?" _How long do we have together?_

"An hour. Gaara needs my help." _I have to go._

"That soon? He works you hard." _Stay with me._

"Yeah, well... I came to say goodbye." _I don't ever want to go, but I must._

"Hm." _I can't believe you're already going._

"As my escort, you're supposed to at least come with me to the gates." _ And on to my home._

"Can't. Tsunade has me booked for missions starting in about ten minutes." _I don't ever want to leave._

"Why are you here, then?" _ I know._

"I'm getting picked up in ten minutes. It's actually kind of covert, so..." _I hate these things which seperate us._

"Well... Goodbye, then." _I hate them too._

"Temari..." _I love you._

"What?" _ I love you too._

"Nothing. 'Bye."

"Goodbye." Temari walked down the hill, and Shikamaru sat on the hill, both of them cursing themselves for not saying what they meant.

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**Interpret this as you wish.**


	13. Talks III: Future Plans

**Hey! It's been a while...yeah...I've been busy.  
**

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**Talks 3:Long Term Plan?**

"Hey."

"..."

"Hey!"

"What the heck do you want, troublesome woman?"

"Nara, I appreciate you taking me out on this...date, I guess you'd call it. Or, rather, I would appreciate it, if we actually did something."

"I am doing something."

"Being annoying doesn't count, Nara. I assumed that you had a plan for this date, but obviously, I was wrong."

"I actually have a long-term plan."

"Oh? Prove it."

"Well, let's see... First we'll go to Ichirakus and talk. Then comes walking you back to you hotel, where I plan to kiss you goodnight, much to your surprise. I'll probably get slapped. This routine continues for several months until you get tired of waiting until I drop you off, and start kissing me in random places, much to my chagrin. Next comes the courtship phase, were I awkwardly try to get your approval and then your brothers' permission, probably resulting in some physical violence being done to me along the way. Then, we have to go through the endless political crap,but we will eventually get married. We'll have six kids, five of whom will become ninja, the last will become a non-ninja nurse. And then, we'll-"

"Stop, Nara. I get your point. So, when do you plan on starting this plan?"

"Well, the problem is, that although that way is the least troublesome and most likely for me to survive through, it'll take too long. How about we just elope?"

"Not likely, Nara."

"Um...what if we just skipped to the kissing stage?"

"Now that, I don't mind. You took long enough, Nara!" And with one kiss, they began the plan that Shikamaru had outlined.


	14. Talks IV: By The Way

**Talks IV:Questions**

"So... Temari?"

"Yeah?"

"How come you don't call me Shika?"

"Erm...what?"

"Well, almost every female and lots of males I know well at all call me Shika, I was just wondering why my girlfriend doesn't."

"Because I don't want to be comon. Also, the first place I heard it was from Ino."

"That would explain it."

"Nara?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you mind that I don't call you by your name?"

"Not really, Temari."

"Good."

"One last question, Temari."

"What, Nara?"

"Would you mind getting your feet off of my face?"

"Pfft. Tough it out."

"What I'm wondering is how your feet even got there, and why you haven't taken them the hell off my face!"

"They got there because I fell out of the tree on top of you, remember? And I haven't removed them because you're contageous."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Mendosuke..."

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**Mendosuke means troublesome, btw. It's pronounced (Men-dos-kay). Kind like that. Similar to Sasuke, in how the "suke" is pronounced.**


	15. The Things It's Not

**The Things It's Not**

_Sometimes, process of elemination is the best way to find an answer._

When asked about the nature of his relationship with Temari, Shikamaru always found it easier to define it in negatives rather than positives; through what it was not rather than what it was. For one thing, their relationship was to complicated to be labeled as any one thing. It wasn't a purely emotional relationship: they had been sleeping together for a year, but it wasn't just sex, there was meaning and feeling to it, and the relationship did not suffer for any periods of abstinence they put themselves through. It wasn't just a working relationship, although they did work together, and were good at it. It wasn't an engagement, nor was it a one-night stand sort of thing. It wasn't shallow, but it wasn't a relationship without fun. It wasn't public, nor was it private. Their relationship was fewer things than it wasn't.

_ Sometimes, it takes a whole lot of elimination to find the answer. They're still working on it._


	16. Comfort Zone

**Comfort Zone**

It's said that as people grow older, their comfort zone expands, from their family, as a baby; to their friends, as a child; to their college, as a student; to the world, as an adult. However, for Temari it was the exact opposite. When she was young, the world had been her comfort zone. And then, when her mother died, and Gaara was born, that zone had shattered, forming again around her brother and herself. Then, later, shrunk within her own skin, to the point where she was only comfortable when she was completely alone. She'd built up a persona of bluster and bluntness, hiding her weakness from the world. Her small comfort zone was also the reason she'd decided never to get involved with anyone, the though of letting anyone into her deepest place, where she felt safe, was to much to bear.

And then she met him. At first, she hadn't noticed it, how he slowly wormed his way under her armor, into her life. At first, they'd just been friends. But then, as they got know each other better, she'd realized how honest she could be with him, how he gave her such calm, and made her feel so secure. It had frightened her, at first, but she soon began to accept it, and even embrace it. Her comfort zone still hadn't grown much, it was still very small. But it now covered two people, because he created her comfort zone, he was her comfort. He was always there for her.

When she was tired, he was there to rub her shoulders; when she woke up with nightmares of her mother dying again and again, he was there, wiping the tears from her eyes, caressing her, touching her hair and face so gently that it calmed her almost instantly. When she tripped, his hand was there to catch her; when she bled, is hand was there to heal her. He was her guardian angel, and he looked after her.

The real wonder of the thing was that it was him. He was the person who had come into her life, and made her armor slip, her persona of strength falter. He shattered what little comfort zone she had regained, but then he replaced it with one much better, much safer and strong. He who had come into her life unwanted, had now become something so indispensable that she thought if he were to die, she would die too. He was everything she had never wanted, and everything she had always needed.


End file.
